Washing machine appliances generally form wash and rinse fluids to clean clothing articles disposed within a wash basket of the appliance. The wash fluid can include, for example, water and various fluid additives e.g., detergent, fabric softener, and/or bleach. The fluid additives can be mixed with water within a wash chamber of the appliance to form the wash fluid. Various fluid additives may also be added to form the rinse fluid.
To introduce one or more fluid additives into the wash tub, a user can manually add the fluid additives to the wash tub and/or the wash basket. For example, after starting the washing machine appliance, the user can pour detergent directly into the wash basket. Conversely, certain washing machine appliances include features for receiving fluid additives and dispensing the fluid additives. For example, a dispenser assembly which includes a tray or container mounted to a top panel of a washing machine appliance can receive a fluid additive and direct the fluid additive into a wash tub of the appliance.
A separate tray or container is generally provided for each particular fluid additive. Thus, for example, a washing machine appliance can require a container for detergent, a container for fabric softener, and a container for bleach. Certain design constraints can, however, limit the effectiveness of using multiple containers to direct fluid additives into the wash tub.
In particular, the multiple containers must fit within a location of the top panel that is sized for only one container. Thus, the size of each container must be reduced to accommodate the constraints of the location. However, reducing the size of each container makes it more difficult to pour a fluid additive into the containers. In addition, the containers will require additional time to drain the same amount of fluid additive, so the time required to load the fluid additives will increase.
Accordingly, a washing machine appliance with features for improved handling of fluid additives would be useful.